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City of Boston Takes Grand Prize in Storytelling with Maps Contest

Eighteen Winners Selected from More than 400 Global Submissions

July 21, 2015

Redlands, California—Esri revealed the winners of its Storytelling with Maps Contest today at the Esri User Conference, highlighting grand prize winner Joyce John's Snow Journal story map for the City of Boston. John's story map incorporated data-rich maps, videos, photos, and text to craft an engaging story of how the city dealt with historic amounts of snow in Boston earlier this year.

As the grand prize winner, John, a member of the City of Boston's GIS team, will receive a one-year ArcGIS Online subscription for five users plus a plaque and certificate.

"Story maps harness the power of geography to tell stories in the most engaging ways," said Allen Carroll, program manager, storytelling. "The winners of our Storytelling with Maps Contest demonstrate the endless ways people can use this rich medium to share their stories with the world."

Storytellers from around the world submitted more than 400 entries that covered the full gamut of Esri Story Map templates. Contest judges selected the following 18 story maps as winners from across the five contest categories:

Best Travel, Destinations, and Recreation

First Place: Elizabeth Frank for Living on the Edge: The Extremes of Human Inhabitance

Submissions were judged on a range of factors. Each selected story map combined design, user experience, impact, and overall creativity with an interesting and engaging story.

All first-place winners will receive a GoPro camera. Second- and third-place winners will receive a copy of the Esri Press book Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map Transformed. All winners will also receive a plaque and a certificate in honor of their award-winning story maps.